FORMER US president Bill Clinton is to visit Ireland soon to support an economic mission being promoted by his wife, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Declan Kelly, US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, was in Belfast yesterday where he said Mr Clinton would visit Ireland at the end of this month or in early October. Mr Kelly said Mr Clinton was anxious to support US efforts to promote economic development in Northern Ireland.
He also said that while the dissident paramilitary threat was a consideration for US investors, it would not deter them from establishing operations in the North.
He said Mr Clinton was still heavily committed to the North. “He remains passionately interested in Northern Ireland and wants to do something to shine a focus on the economic potential of the region,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Clinton would be visiting in advance of next month’s US/NI economic conference in Washington, which Hillary Clinton is hosting.
Mr Kelly said the one-day conference would be a clearly concentrated and mainly closed event attended by about 75 people, including First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, senior US executives, representatives of Invest Northern Ireland and other politicians.
The main focus would be on bringing 12 American chief executives or senior managers who have operations in Northern Ireland face to face with a similar number of American chief executives to advise them of the benefits of locating in the North.
“These are multibillion dollar companies who are seriously interested in getting involved in Northern Ireland, or want to learn more about Northern Ireland because they are interested in expanding internationally,” said Mr Kelly.
He said the names of the US companies with an interest in Northern Ireland could not be disclosed at this stage but that US companies with operations in the North who would be sending representatives included Seagate, Citibank, the New York Stock Exchange and Liberty Mutual.